Intra-Group Epistemic Injustice: Jewish Identity, Whiteness, and Zionism

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this paper, I work towards a conceptualization of a new form of epistemic injustice – one that occurs within groups, as opposed to across groups – which I call ‘intra-group epistemic injustice’. Specifically, I focus on a case that occurs within the Jewish community, regarding what I and others see as the silencing of anti-Zionist Jews by Zionist Jews, via a conflation of Jewish identity with Zionism. Anti-Zionist Jews are accused by Zionist Jews of being ‘self-hating Jews’ or perhaps not even Jews at all, and as such, the former’s contributions to discussions of what it means to be Jewish are preemptively disregarded by the latter. Consequently, the harm of this epistemic injustice is that it effectively issues a denial of one’s identity as a Jew, which may amount to a nearly complete denial of one’s self.KEYWORDS: Epistemic injusticesocial identityJudaism, Zionism Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. Even its categorization as a religion is subject to debate. See Leora Batnitzsky, ‘How Judaism Became a Religion’ (2011).2. Except perhaps in the case of Black American Jews, for whom the memory of slavery is much more recent.3. This internalization of stereotypes plays an important role in Tobi’s (Citation2023) parallel account of intra-group epistemic injustice as well. While we approach the concept from different perspectives (mine Jewish, and his post-colonial), there are important similarities, like the internalization of stereotypes just mentioned, which are worth analyzing in future writing on this subject.4. Another problematic source of support for Israel comes from evangelical Christian Zionists, who are only instrumentally invested in the Jews’ return to Israel to the extent that it fulfills the biblical prophecy required for the return of Christ. It is debatable whether this is a true instance of philosemitism, but I would argue that it functions similarly.5. I’m speaking here of political Zionism specifically, though of course there were other emergent strands of Zionist thought that did not require the establishment of a Jewish state, for which I do not have the space to go into here.6. Patricia Cohen, ‘Outspoken Political Scientist Denied Tenure at DePaul’, The New York Times, June 11, 2007.Additional informationNotes on contributorsDana GrabelskyDana Grabelsky is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at CUNY Graduate Center. She works primarily in social and political philosophy, with a focus on related issues in social epistemology and philosophy of language. Additionally, she has interests in philosophy of art (bad movies in particular).